Islamic State advances on Homs and Palmyra in Syria.

[CidanSultan]

By Ruth Sherlock, Gaziantep and Magdy Samaan

 

3:32PM GMT 03 Nov 2014

 

As the world focuses on Kobane, jihadists have pressed deep inside Syria – advancing on both Idlib and Homs

 

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has capitalised on the jihadist domination of northern Syria, seizing two gas fields and pressing a major assault on an air force base close to the central city of Homs.

 

While US-led air strikes have focused on defending the border town of Kobane from a few hundred Isil fighters, the extremist group has pushed south, expanding its grip on terrain that is strategically vital in the battle for control of the country.

 

On Monday, Isil posted photographs on social media showing the group's flag flying over Jahar gas field, alongside images of seized vehicles, weaponry and corpses of the Syrian regime soldiers who had controlled the field.

 

The group captured the Sha'ar gas plant last week.

 

"So after the Sha'ar company and the positions surrounding it became part of the land of the Caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all praise is due to Allah," Isil said in the message.

 

Even more concerning for the regime, the jihadists have now moved to assault Tayfur military airbase – perhaps the biggest and most valuable military stronghold still in the possession of the government in Damascus.

 

The advances by Isil follow gains made in north-west Syria in recent days by Jabhat al-Nusra, the other main jihadist group, which unlike Isil remains affiliated to Al-Qaeda. It has obliterated large parts of the remaining “moderate” rebel forces backed by the United States in an advance across Idlib province, leaving most of northern Syria in the hands of one or other of the two groups. Isil's advance on the Tayfur base would represent a major push south.

 

An earlier propaganda video about the base on Syrian State television showed SU-22M4, SU-22M2 and MiG-29 fighter planes, as well as air defence radars. It is also said to house surface-to-air missile systems.

 

While the heartland of Isil's control is Raqqa, a city located in deserts to the northeast of the country, which the regime appears to have written off, this onslaught is taking place in the centre of the axis of the remaining territory it controls.

 

 

Homs sits on the central highway leading from the capital Damascus to Latakia, the area populated by the Alawite sect that the regime sees as its mainstay of support.

 

Homs was a leading centre of the uprising in Syria in 2011, but the opposition was eventually crushed there by the regime, which touted its use of brute military force on the civilian neighbourhoods as proof of its continuing strength in Syria.

 

"For a long time Isil has been keen to expand its presence further south and Homs makes sense as a platform for that," said Charles Lister, a Syria analyst. "The choice of this location puts pressure on the Syrian regime, and also demonstrates that Isil has a reach that the rest of the Syrian opposition is incapable of demonstrating."

 

Operations in Homs may also be the result of US air strikes on northern Syria, said Mr Lister.

 

"An area like Homs is also a target that Isil would feel more comfortable with now, as the chance of air strikes hitting this area is less likely," he said.

 

If the US government were to strike Isil targets around Homs, they would effectively be providing air support for the Syrian government – a declared enemy. The US, which has supported and armed the Syrian opposition, has denied that the air strikes it is conducting in Syria indicate a rapprochement with Mr Assad.

 

The jihadist onslaught in Homs is potentially highly damaging militarily for the Syrian regime. Both Sha'ar and Jahar gas fields were said to be being used as ad hoc military positions by the government, and Tayfur air base remains a main centre for their operations.

 

Khodair Khashfa, a Syrian activist who spoke from Homs using a pseudonym said: "[isil] used a suicide car bomb on the front entrance of Tayfur base and, at the same time shelled the airport with Grad rockets and other artillery."

 

For the moment the government has resisted the onslaught, but it is unclear how many casualties it has incurred in the process.

 

Video footage filmed by Isil fighters in Sha'ar showed the corpses of Syrian government fighters strewn on the ground. Mr Lister said a guess of between 25 and 50 dead was plausible.

[CidanSultan]

 

 

[CidanSultan]

Homs is a very important city in Syria. It was the home of the first revolt against hafiz Al assad the alawite dog of old.

 

IS has cut off the main road between Homs and Palmyra. They have captured the surrounding areas are the largest airbase in Syria known as T4 airbase.

 

They have also managed to take 3 old fields. Lebanese television was reporting assad forces took it Back today however the news as it stands now confirmed that it is still in the hands of IS.

 

This could be a game changer. Today the city of haditha one of the last few cities of Anbar in Iraq fell and in kobane. The YPG have made no territorial gains. IS released a new video inside kobane showing many dead YPG the entry of the peshmerge ha shade no difference.

 

All this is possible thanks to George Bush. The greatest political mind the modern world has ever seen.

[Axmed1508736699]

You love the rapists and headcutters, dont you?